Monday, September 8, 2008

I think I may have found an easy diet to follow. It's called the, "Damage your TMJ until it hurts so bad you cry when you chew" diet. My jaw had been hurting for a week, but I went to my dentist today when I realized that my teeth no longer touch on my right side when I close my mouth. It hurts!

I don't know what I did to injure my jaw to begin with. I don't clench my jaw or grind my teeth at night. In fact, my jaw feels better in the morning after resting it all night.

According to my dentist, a muscle in my jaw is damaged and the way to get it to heal, is by letting it rest. How do you rest your jaw though? You have to use it to talk and eat every day. So, he told me to follow a soft/not much chewing diet for the next 6-8 weeks.

Clay had his first day of preschool today. The older kids have been telling him about the fun things he'll do at preschool; namely the gingerbread hunt. They explained all about how they got to make gingerbread boys while they were in preschool. While the gingerbread boys were cooling, the kids went out to play and when they came back, the gingerbread boys had disappeared! The kids had to go on a hunt and follow the clues to find them.

They had talked about this ad nauseam and Clay was excited to begin preschool.

So today, we're in the classroom, just sitting there listening to the teachers talk. Clay turns to me and says, "When do we get to eat cookies?" He was under the impression that every day was gingerbread day in preschool. I told him that he wouldn't be eating cookies today. Deflated, he turned back to the teacher who wasn't saying anything of interest to Clay. He sat there a couple more minutes before turning to me and saying, "Well, this sucks."

51 comments:

Dianne
said...

Soft meat?? Well, at least you'll get to make frozen fruit smoothies (with or without yogurt or ice cream). You could add protein powder into them (and everything else) until you're able to eat solids again. Hang in there!

We had a gingerbread man hunt when I was in kindergarden! Only, we found our men missing on the next morning. That was one of my favorite memories of kindergarden. There are a few other random things I remember, like my teacher (Mrs. Turner) spinning around when she introduced herself. I thought that was just absolutely hilarious.

OH, I could see where this story was going . . . . every child has fallen victim to that sort of thing.

Don't worry. My son wanted to go to a FREE christian concert (MercyMe and Toby Mac) until he found out there would be preaching (Louis Palau). Then he decided he didn't want to go because of the preaching. Like I tell my freinds. . . . watch out, I'm raising a real spiritual giant!

Girl, I can so sympathize with you. I fell and broke my jaw over a year ago and now have to wear an appliance they call it. When I broke it, the Dr. agreed not to wire my jaw shut if I promised not to eat for 2 months. Well I ate or should say drank everything I could think of and ended up losing 15 pounds. Not a fun way and I didn't need to lose the weight. Anyway, ended up trying every kind of soup or broth they make. To this day, really don't enjoy soup anymore. It wasn't so bad, but I know what you are going through. Since my jaw has healed on the side I broke, my other side is the one deteriorating. So that is why I now wear the mouth piece. It is so much better now, I may talk a little funny wearing it, but hey it sure beats having my jaw wired shut. Good luck to you!! Love your blog, I read it every morning.

I understand your jaw pain. I've had 4 jaw surgeries and a jaw replacement done. The soft chew/no chew diet does work. I lost between 10-15 lbs each time I was on it. (4 times).... Hint: you CAN eat popcorn though, just pop it in your mouth and 'suck' on it. It'll go down without the first chew... Love your blog.... Beth in Champaign, IL

During my first Trimester, when I was hungry and nauseous ALL. THE. TIME. A woman on Mamasource suggested this shake for breakfast - 8 oz milk, 1 banana, 1 scoop peanut butter. (I added a scoop of protein powder, as well, just to make it a bit more FILLING.) It worked - the first shake I had was the first time I wasn't hungry 5 minutes after breakfast.

Dawn, I have a 7 year old daughter as well as a 6 year old niece that lives with me full time. My niece is what you would call...a handful. She's a 1st grader and they have colors that show what their behavior was. Green means a good day, yellow means not so good, then red which is where it gets into the bad. She had a yellow day yesterday...been in school 2 weeks. The reason she got a yellow was because she was doing jumping jacks in class. See I think the public school system is to blame. If they would let us do jumping jacks in class then we would do that and not have to worry about losing weight when we get a little older....don't ya think? I love your blog....it's nice to have some laughs out of the every day insanity of parenting.

Dawn... Just wanted to let you know be very careful of the treatments that various dentist will give you for TMJ. My dentist gave me an NTI device last year - I do not grind my teeth but the thing messed me up so bad that I have discomfort most of the time now. It took two other dentist and lots of money to the point I am at now. Please, Please, Please - research it!! I have been reading your blog from the beginning and enjoy it. I have 4 kids - and today is the first day in a lot of years that I will eat my lunch - ALONE! Maybe that sounds appealing to you - it use to sound good to me - but now...Not so good. An older friend told me recently - she has 9 children and it is much easier to send your kids to kindergarten every other year than to college!! God Bless!

I had TMJ surgery a couple of years ago and it is a great diet. My mouth was banded closed, so everything had to be blended the first week. . after that, it was really soft food. I went from 115 to 105 in about 2 weeks. You'd be surprised how good things taste grinded up in a magic bullet after a week of Boost shakes and Instant Breakfast!

Hey Dawn- First comment here for me! :) I have TMJ, too. It stinks! Since you can only eat soft foods, try Boca burgers. I recently started eating them to just eat BETTER, but they're actually really good, low in calories and a softer texture. That sounds gross, but they are very tasty! --Kelly

If you have to eat oatmeal, do what I do. I add dried cherries from Trader Joe's and a spoonful of Nutella. It's like eating a warm oatmeal cookie. As for the eggs, add a spoonful of salsa and your favorite shredded cheese.

I am sorry to hear about your, uh, diet. My wife had gastric bypass five years ago. For the first six weeks she was only allow to eat liquids. By week five, I think she would have asked me to put a cheeseburger in a blender had I offered. (Yes, someone suggested this)

I had TMJ this year, following the flu. Nice, eh? I seriously thought I had a raging ear infection. I couldn't put my teeth together, my ear ached and it wasn't until I went to an ENT that they diagnosed it correctly. The soft diet did the trick. I hope it gets better for you! I feel your pain, literally. Oh and btw, Clay rocks!!!

Dawn - I love you're blog! I read it every day. My kids are all grown and gone and the first thing I always think is 'O, Man! I remember when my kids did that!' Then I think 'O, Man! I'm really glad my kids are grown and gone!!!'from Barbara O.

SSO question:Were you planning on getting Brooklyn's eyes checked out? I slept with my eyes open as a child (actually still do), and now I have scarring on my eyes from them drying out overnight. I'm practically blind without my glasses. Bless whoever invented ultrathin lenses....

I get TMJ pain something fierce. When it is REAL bad, sometimes I cannot close my jaw and sometimes I can't open it. I have had two different treatments that were highly effective. the first one is the easiest. A chiro can actually adjust your jaw and do wonders for this! I do this from time to time when my jaw locks. the other treatment I had done when it was so bad that I was in tears and couldn't open or close my jaw without intense pain from unlocking it. I had injections into my jaw (one was a steroid injection the other was something called prolotherapy) while the injections were not pleasant (to say the least) it worked WONDERS!

A few years ago I got this email from my cousin to read this ebay post. I read it and laughed and forwarded to my friends. In there you mentioned something about a blog. I had no clue what that was,I was sheltered, I know. Now that I started blogging I remembered that you said you had a blog and I did a search this morning and found you.

Maybe a purely chocolate diet for the next 6-8 weeks. Just pop a piece in any time you're hungry and wait for it to melt. Wait a minute...who waits for the chocolate to melt before scarfing it down?! Maybe that won't work afterall. Well, good luck; I hope it feels better REALLY soon!

The kids have not seemed to catch on to the fact that he ends up in the principal's office. Every. Year. They think it's so cool!! Gotta love pre-schoolers.

My first grader had a similar experience to Clay's. He loved the first day of school, but was completely taken aback by the fact that he had to go back the second day. As if I had tricked him! And he went to kindergarten all year last year, so it's not like this was a new concept to him.

I also have TMJ. When it got really bad, it helped to go to a TMJ specialist who did head "adjustments". I want to reiterate what another poster said about being very careful about treatments recommended by your regular dentist. They all know about TMJ, but they don't all know how to treat it, and they don't all take it very seriously. Find someone who specializes in TMJ, and make sure that he/she is highly recommended. There are a lot of resources online to turn to.

I loved going to our church's pre-k on Sundays when I was a kid. Then, when I finally got to go to kindergarten at the big kid's school I was so excited; only to cry when I was told I couldn't go back to pre-k on Sunday when I woke my parents up to go. Happy to Devestated in .06 seconds!

At least you can have plain chocolate. Plain Hershey's kisses and Hershey bars melt. No chewing required ;) Just hope you've got a really good hiding spot from the kids.

I understand the school thing. My son got bored through the year last year, and his teacher told me I shouldn't say he's "bored" because he'll have to get used to waiting for other people. Excuse me, I thought school was for teaching kids to learn, not to wait. I'm so glad he'll be in a new district next month.

Try a chiropractor for your TMJ!! It worked out well for me. I was suffering from the pain in my jaw as well as, headaches caused by the TMJ. After a couple of treatments, things were back to normal. I only go back once or twice a year now when the pain returns.........way better than surgery or mouth guards.

I had TMJ problems back in March. I had a wisdom tooth, in the upper right, and there wasn't a tooth for it below, so, it kept growing longer and longer. One morning I was eating cereal, CEREAL!, and had severe pain in my right jaw...I couldn't close my mouth or chew, it hurt, hurt, hurt! I got into the dentist that day, and they did xrays and found that extra long non- mated wisdom tooth, and nothing else wrong. So, I was on muscle relaxants for 2weeks, and a mechanical soft diet, and went in and had that tooth out 2 weeks later. (I think I was also on strong anti-inflammatories). Well, once that tooth was out, I haven't had a problem since. It doesnt' sound like your problem is so easy to take care of. But, I can feel your pain, it is so miserable, not being able to chew!

So sorry to hear about the tmj. I made a list of foods, but it seems they have all been covered by the posts before me. DQ (I think they are in IL) also has lots of shakes, crushes, ice cream (my personal favorites). Also, my teen daughters bought me a majic bullet and that thing is amazing! Egg salad in about 30 seconds. Chicken salad in about the same amount of time.

I used to be a teacher assistant at a preschool. Clay is going to LOVE this year! Assure him that he will have tasty snacks every day. Wait until the Thanksgiving feast -- but don't eat the fruit salad made by the kiddos.

The gingerbread hunt sounds like so much fun! I may try that closer to the holidays with my kids.

I'm still wiping tears from eyes over what Clay said! It seems like kids wait until the very worst moment to say things like that. It's usually during a sermon at church, or when you're introducing them to another adult, or when you're in a quiet waiting room. I've wanted to dig a hole and hide many times!

I lost weight on the TMJ diet until I went to my chiropractor and he discovered that my neck and head bones were out of alignment and that'd affected my jaw. (Your skull is actually made of a bunch of bones not one big one I learned!) No more TMJ diet for me!!!

Another reader with TMJ here. Mine acts up during times of stress. I don't grind or anything. But what I do, is set my jaw. Sort of locking it in place. When it acts up I try to take a few minutes here and there throughout the day and slowly open my mouth concentrating on those muscles and telling myself relax the jaw over and over again. I hope something helps for you! Good luck!

I wish Clay could meet my almost 4-year old, who also just started preschool. And used the occasion to blame her new teacher for the suspicious new haircut she had after Day 1. (When asked, she blamed it on her teacher; I later found a small pile of hair in the front closet...)

She also said goodbye to her dad the other day by saying: "Keep it real, Dad!"

And it does suck when we cannot have cookies every day. Clay -- will you take Elizabeth to the prom?

Def. try a chiropractor.. my dentist wanted me to get braces to help my TMJ.. doesn't he realize that dental insurance doesn't cover adult braces.. and my kid is going to need them.. after a couple of trips to my chiro I can actually chew "real" food.. good luck!! hope it is feeling better